Sunday, February 16, 2014

The Returned

a television drama series created by Fabrice Gobert and shown on Canal+ in France, BeTV in Belgium, Channel4 in UK and SVT in Sweden .... It is an adaptation of the 2004 film They Came Back (in French titled Les Revenants) .... In 2013 it won an International Emmy for best drama series .... In a small mountain town, many dead people reappear, apparently alive and normal: road accident victim teenager Camille, suicidal bridegroom Simon, a small boy named "Victor" who was murdered by burglars, and Serge, a serial killer. They try to resume their lives as strange phenomena occur; amongst recurring power outages, the water level of the reservoir mysteriously lowers, revealing the presence of dead animals and a church steeple, and strange marks appear on the bodies of the living and the dead.

I've just watched the first episode so far but it is intriguing, despite the effort of reading the subtitles, and reminds me a bit of Top of the Lake, given the setting of a small remote mountain town, dead animals beneath the lake, and the grimness. Stephen King is apparently a fan, perhaps because it's reminiscent of Pet Sematary. For those who are sensitive ... there's a lot of violence in the show. Here's a trailer ...